


Anything but a Rom-Com

by cactus_enthusiast



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Breaking the Fourth Wall, Enemies to Lovers, Gay, Lmao help me, M/M, also TW there is swearing, but like not really, dude how do you tag lmao, g a y, idk man you'll have to read it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:42:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28775541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cactus_enthusiast/pseuds/cactus_enthusiast
Summary: Abed was happy with his life, he knew what to expect and he liked it that way.  He had a system and there was no need to change it.  Suddenly, he gets the sneaking suspicion that things are going to go south when he sees a loud, and admittingly handsome, boy sitting in his Spanish class.  And if things couldn't get any worse, he gets paired with him in a group project.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 8
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

Abed Nadir was content with his life. He would wake up, brush his teeth while practicing how to smile in the mirror, go to Greendale Community College, take classes he had little to no interest in, go to his dorm room to watch Inspector Spacetime, and go to sleep. He had a routine, and while it may not be ideal, it was fine. The thing about constantly being disappointed is you learn to have realistic expectations of what life will present to you, preventing the unfortunate action of getting your hopes up. Abed often related life to TV, saying it all had a formula. Some days felt like bottle episodes, others filler. He rarely came across a season finale worthy day, but he just assumed the writers in the sky weren’t prepared to finish that season. And, honestly, neither was he. He had a system, and it worked. There was no reason to change it. So why is it, as he waltzed into his Spanish 101 class he felt a sudden shift in the balance? He laid his eyes on a boy sitting two desks behind his usual spot and sighed. He was laughing with Starburns and Vicki.

 _“Let’s see,”_ he thought to himself, _“loud new kid sitting relatively close to me, wearing a letter jacket screaming ‘my personality is a high school stereotype’, just as I had internal dialogue about how content I am with my life. This can’t be good,”_

He sat down, desperately trying to ignore the obnoxious talking coming from behind him by quickly tapping his pencil on the surface of his desk. Senor Chang entered, letting out an evil laugh.

“Hola clase,” he sat on the papers scattered across his disorganized excuse of a workspace, “today we will be doing group projects,” he laughed even louder as he heard the groans from his students. It was honestly scary how ecstatic he would get at the misery of others. Abed’s eyes grew wide as he quickly looked up at the ceiling.

 _“Please, writers in the sky, don’t do this.”_ Chang began to read out the assigned partners, although there was no need. Abed already knew his fate. A new kid that seemed to be the polar opposite of the protagonist, a sudden group project, it wasn’t a coincidence. This trope wasn’t uncommon in fanfiction, which could only mean one thing. He and the new irritating boy were love interests. He knew better than to get his hopes up, so when Senor Chang yelled out “Troy Barnes and Abed Nadir,” he didn’t hesitate to stand up and walk directly towards the boy.

“Hello, Troy,” he spoke with his usual monotone voice, receiving a weird look from the former jock.

“Yeah?” Abed wasn’t the best at reading people, but it wasn’t rocket science to know that Troy didn’t want to be there. His tone was sarcastic and bored.

“We’re in a group project together,” Abed said bluntly, receiving a small yikes from the boy and the peers surrounding him. It was no mystery that Abed was known as “that kid” on the campus. It didn’t bother him, it was part of his routine. Plus he had already gotten used to being treated like this from junior and regular high school. In fact, Troy resembled the people that used to push him into lockers. He looked up at the ceiling again.

_“If this turns out to be enemies to lovers I’m shooting myself.”_

“Yeah, right, so you’re Abed?” he gave a small nod, making Troy stand up. He quickly said goodbye to Starburns, winked at Vicki, and followed after Abed, who was already at the classroom door. He wouldn’t let this mess with his system.

“We're going to my dorm,” he declared and began walking in that direction. Troy scrambled after him, giving a small laugh.

“Uh, okay, that’s cool,” he rubbed the back of his neck, checking the time. They continued to walk quietly. Abed tried to calm himself down. He glanced at Troy and smiled.

_“There’s no way,”_ he told himself, _“I clearly misunderstood the genre. Maybe there will be a dead body in my room, no way this can be a rom-com with that,”_ He felt much less tense, there was still a chance it could be a murder mystery. He anxiously opened his dorm room, silently praying to be hit with the overwhelming smell of rotting flesh. The door was opened and, much to his dismay, it smelled fine. They walked in and, almost instantly, he started looking around. 

__

_“Maybe they somehow got rid of the smell,”_ he began checking under his bed but to no avail. He had to accept there was no body. Troy awkwardly stood in the doorway, watching Abed scurry around the small room. 

__

__

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“Looking for something?” he finally spoke, receiving a small sigh from the taller boy.

__

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“Yeah, but it’s fine,” he gestured for Troy to come in as he sat on the couch. His leg began to rapidly bounce up and down. His mind was racing, hopelessly trying to think of ways to keep this “story” from progressing. He had never really fallen in love, it wasn’t his thing. Maybe he could try and free-will his way from catching feelings? It shouldn’t be too hard.

__

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_“Yeah,”_ he smiled, feeling relief wash over him, _“I just won’t fall in love,”_ his thoughts were cut short by the other boy shouting in excitement. __

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“You watch Inspector Spacetime too??” he had a dorky grin plastered on his face as he stared at the poster Abed had hanging on his wall. Abed felt his heart skip a beat as his cheeks warmed up. He stared at Troy, eyes growing wide.

__

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_“Shit."_

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	2. Chapter 2

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, Abed still comprehending what he just said.

 _“You like Inspector Spacetime too??”_ the words rang through his head. His heart raced as he opened and closed his mouth, only able to form small “ack” noises. Troy’s former smile quickly turned downward, he looked concerned.

“Abed? You good?” he poked his shoulder, making Abed slightly flinch, but still, no words left his mouth, “Dude you haven’t blinked for two minutes,” that snapped Abed out of his trance.

“Yes,” he said, quickly blinking as his eyes began to water. Troy gave him another weird look, “I watch Inspector Spacetime,” he clarified. Troy smiled again, beginning to ramble about how good the show was, but Abed couldn’t focus. He was usually all for talking about it, after all, it was the best show ever created, but he was extremely distracted. 

“I think you should leave,” he suddenly interrupted, making Troy frown. He did feel bad for kicking him out, but too much was happening too fast and he couldn’t handle it. Troy paused, then nodded slowly, clearly troubled but didn’t say anything.

“Uh, ok. I’ll come back tomorrow?” he said, more like a question as he walked to the door. Abed gave a small thumbs up and he closed the door. He looked at the ceiling blankly.

“Why?” he asked, tilting his head. He didn’t expect an answer, but he still thought he might ask. He knew what he felt was undeniably love, logically speaking. He had seen enough movies to know when your heart rate increased and your cheeks get warm it meant you liked someone. But how can you love someone that you barely know and hated the moment you laid eyes on them? He leaned against the hard, slightly damp cushion on the back of his couch. Troy’s geeky smile popped into his head, causing him to cover his face.

_“Damnit, I totally love him,”_

\---

“Hey, Troy!” Britta exclaimed, waving across the small coffee shop. She sat on top of the black marble counter, swinging her legs forward and backward happily. Troy smiled and gave her a small wave, walking behind the counter and putting on his apron. He and Britta had been working together for a few months while they both attempted to pay for college, and over that time they had grown relatively close. He was there when she got dumped by some hippie guy, and she was there when he was nervous to ask a really cute girl out. They both went to Greendale but rarely ran into each other, so they always caught up at their job.

"So how's it going?" Britta smiled as she hopped off the counter and began tying her hair into a bun. Troy let out a small laugh, giving her a "you have no idea" look. She frowned and raised her eyebrows, "Please tell,"

"Well," he sighed, slowly beginning to make himself a cup of coffee. He technically wasn't allowed to, but no one had stopped him yet so he assumed it wasn't that big of a deal.  
"I got assigned a Spanish project with the weirdest man I've ever met," he sipped the cup and began explaining Abed's lack of social skills. Britta listened thoughtfully, clearly trying to diagnose the boy he was talking about.

"And he keeps looking up at the ceiling! And I look up, and there's literally nothing. Like, I want to know what's on the ceiling too," Troy cried, looking up longingly. The blonde nodded, patting him on the back. Suddenly they heard a light cough. They turned to see a line of people formed, waiting patiently to order. Britta sighed.

“You can finish telling me about him later,” she winked, making him laugh. They got to work, but Troy’s mind just went over the weird scenarios he had experienced with the boy. The face he gave him when he brought up Inspector Spacetime replayed over and over in his head.

 _“He had a poster in his room, it’s not weird to point it out!”_ he comforted himself, shaking his head. Troy had been trying to hang out with people he wouldn’t usually talk to, at least in high school. All of his “friends” abandoned him when he started going to Greendale, feeling no need to stay in touch since he didn’t have his scholarship. It left him kind of lost, he knew they were douchebags, but he felt safe with them. Like he couldn't be touched or hurt. But now he’s making bad coffee for rude people while going to a community college. So when he saw how quiet Abed was he wanted to start a conversation. That shouldn’t have gotten him kicked out of the dorm, right? It was all so confusing.

 _“I should apologize the next time I see him,”_ he nodded, staying determined. He began calling out names, handing people their orders.

\---

The two boys found themselves, once again, sitting awkwardly on Abed’s couch. The project was due at the end of the week, they had to make a presentation about a place in Spain and explain parts of it in español. They decided to make theirs about the island Majorca, the most popular location in the Mediterranean. Troy scrolled through his phone while Abed tapped on his laptop keyboard, both researching for facts about this site.

“Uh, we could talk about the mountains?” Troy proposed, breaking the silence with an uncertain tone. He noticed the confused look on Abed’s face and gestured at his phone, “It says here that they had limestone mountains in Majorca, we could mention that in the presentation,”

Abed paused, then nodded, “Yeah, that sounds good,” then quickly went back to his laptop. He was obviously avoiding any form of contact with Troy, whether it be speaking or touching, he just wouldn’t be able to handle it.

 _“Just focus on the project,”_ he told himself, reading over what he had typed for the assignment. Troy leaned over, trying to catch a glimpse of what he was writing. Abed sighed and closed the laptop, making the other boy even more nervous. He swallowed the remaining saliva in his throat, silently building up the courage to talk to Abed about yesterday. Abed knew Troy wanted to talk about it. Suddenly kicking someone out of your dorm without warning often warrants a conversation. He expected the usual lecture about how rude it was of him, or how they’re stuck with each other so he needs to get over it. Troy's mouth slowly opened and Abed braised himself, his shoulders tensing up.

“Hey I’m sorry if I offended you yesterday, Abed. I just got excited that you were into Inspector Spacetime too,” his voice was warm as his eyes softened, making Abed’s cheeks heat up again. Desperately trying to control his increasing heart rate, he quickly nodded, forcing his gaze away. The other boy winced, his apology clearly wasn’t convincing enough, and suddenly he grabbed his hand. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out.

 _“So this is gay panic,”_ Abed thought, staring in terror at the small embrace. Troy rushed his hand back, letting out an oddly loud laugh. His eyes darted around the room, slowly shrinking into his side of the couch.

“Wow woah uh,” he fumbled over his words, “I’m so sorry… about the Inspector Spacetime thing and this,” he emphasized the ending part, burying his face in his hands.

“It’s ok,” he said, looking down at his lap. 

_“This is so embarrassing…”_

They decided to forget the whole thing and continue working, but Abed’s mind wouldn’t rest. With every moment that passed, he found another thing he adores about Troy. The way he furrows his eyebrows when he’s thinking really hard on something, then how large his eyes grow when he figures it out. Or how bright his smile gets when Abed makes a movie reference that he understands. It somehow motivated Abed to try harder on the project, to get another overjoyed look from the boy.

After a couple of hours passed, Troy looked down at his phone and muttered a small “shit.”  
He gave Abed a disappointed look and showed him the time. The phone glowed “12:46” that, for some reason, made them both burst out laughing. Well, more of Troy laughing and Abed smiling with some chuckles. Troy sighed, letting out a yawn.

“I guess I should go then,” he smiled, standing up and grabbing his bag, “see you tomorrow.” he lightly closed the door behind him as Abed’s stomach fluttered. He fell against the couch, the image of Troy laughing occupying his mind. He looked up at the ceiling, unable to whip the dorky smile plastered on his face.

_“Ok fine,” he giggled, covering his mouth, “maybe a rom-com isn’t too bad.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You've finished the second chapter of Anything but a Rom-Com, congrats!! I would like to formally apologize for the laziness of this chapter, I won't lie when I tell you it was partly rushed. I usually give myself at least a day to edit, but this time I gave myself 30 minutes. I'm thinking I'll try and post a chapter once every week on Fridays or Saturdays. Thanks so much for reading! You guys are what keep me motivated to write <333

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, the chapter is so short!! I wanted to get something out, so I guess consider this a preview? Prologue? Idk. The point is, I will try to make the next chapters longer. Thanks for reading <33 feel free to comment and leave kudos ;)


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